1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to camera-equipped, foldable portable terminal equipment such as a cellular phone unit, a PDA, and a digital camera.
2. Description of the Related Art
Foldable portable terminal equipment including cameras is disclosed in Published Japanese patent application 2003-304308. The disclosed portable terminal equipment includes lower and upper chassis and a connector therebetween for collapsibly interconnecting these two chassis. A display and a first camera are disposed on the upper chassis on the obverse side thereof. The lower chassis has a keyboard disposed on the obverse side thereof and a second camera disposed on the reverse side thereof. When the upper and lower chassis are folded up, then the obverse side of the upper chassis is overlaid with that of the lower chassis, and the first camera is hidden from view.
To photograph a user itself, the user opens up the upper and lower chassis to take a self-picture of the user using the first camera. The monitored image of the user is displayed on the display on the obverse side of the upper chassis, and the user can take a picture of the user itself while watching the display to see how the user is displayed.
To take a picture of any photographic subject other than the user, the user opens up the upper and lower chassis, and then directs the second camera at the subject to take a picture thereof. The monitored image of the subject is similarly displayed on the same display as above, and the user can photograph the subject while watching the display to see how the subject is displayed.
Preferred portable terminal equipment has the most compact and thin structure possible and the fewest components possible in light of high portability and less cost. However, such demands are difficult to meet because the above-described portable terminal equipment is based on the premise of two or more cameras thereon.
Published Japanese patent application 2003-60764 discloses different portable terminal equipment including a single camera operable to photograph both a user itself and other subjects. More specifically, a connector has a pivotable camera holder, on which the single camera is mounted. This construction allows the user to manually pivot the camera holder, and the camera can be oriented at the user and other subjects. This feature provides fewer components in the portable terminal equipment.
However, a drawback to the disclosed portable terminal equipment is that the connector is rendered considerably larger in thickness, and consequently it is impossible to smooth out the technical issue to realize the portable terminal equipment having the most compact and thin structure possible.